UK Insurance Companies Recommendations....

Mr Pid

Mr Pid

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Apologies if this is the wrong place, did a few searches but found nothing...

I am looking for insurance for all my gear and am interested to hear on who you would recommend.

I do not shoot professionally and only want equipment cover at home and on location. I photograph mostly Aircraft and Wildlife so theft and accidental damage are high risk.

I have done a few quotes via google and prices vary quite dramatically between companies.

If anyone has any recommendations I would be most grateful.

Thanks in advance..
 
Have you checked with your house/contents insurance? (you may already be covered, or a small extra premium if not)
 
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Stay away from morethan they messed me about for 3 months wanting all sorts of copies of this and copies of that. They then found that Aviva had paid a claim 3 years ago I knew nothing about. The policy was £532 before they found out and the wanted to change it to £999.62.

I told them to sling their hook and went with AXA instead, no hassle and done on line in less than an hour.
 
OldCarlos said:
Have you checked with your house/contents insurance? (you may already be covered, or a small extra premium if not)
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House contents does cover everything, but only covers items at home.

Im more worried about damage if I fall in a river or it gets stolen when shooting away from home tbh.

Ive looked at Photoguard and a few others so far...
 
I'll give them a call and see if they can help before I do anything externally I think... Cheers
 
Adding it as all risk to your house insurance as a hobbyist is likely to be by far the cheapest option.
 
I'm with Eversure.

https://www.eversure.com/camera/

Very easy do deal with as I've changed the equipment to be insured a couple of time and it's all been hassle free. Never needed proof of purchase.

Proof will be if i ever need to claim.
 
Mr Pid said:
House contents does cover everything, but only covers items at home.

Im more worried about damage if I fall in a river or it gets stolen when shooting away from home tbh
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Not if you go "all risk"
 
I've always added mine to the house insurance
Am with Churchill and adding my gear as separate away from home all risks wasn't a problem and didn't make the insurance expensive
 
I can't say enough about " Eversure "having recently having to contact them when i dropped my camera. it was only a matter of days before it was in for repair. Eversure straight away contacted a company called Questgates who are insurance claim accessors who accepted the claim. That was about 2/3 days only. I had to pay the first £100 access which i knew about. From then on they arranged for the camera to be collected from my house , arranged for the repairer company ( who did a better than new repair job) and returned it back to my home. In total took about 5 weeks which may seem a long time but this I think was getting the parts in to do the repair as they were not just something run of the mill.

This was the damage they fixed and not just that they also replaced the mirror- realigned the focus and did a colour correction calibration as well. i can't speak highly enough of the whole episode how i was looked after with follow on phone calls keeping me informed of what was happening. What I would say is more than a first class service.,

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Repaired

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All of mine is covered on the house contents. All risks, and specified where need be.
 
Thats an awesome repair - the body looked quite dented at the top.

After many phone calls today my house insurance will cover it, but for an additional £300 on the premium..... specific items of over £3k are covered (with proof of value) but anything else under £3k has a maximum claim value of £5k - so a macbook pro and a 100-400 ii will get paid out but everything else will not be covered, which isn't so good.

Or I got a decent quote with Esure for £270 which I'm looking into further now.
 
I found adding it to the house insurance to be most cost effective
 
Without knowing what exactly you are trying to cover, an additional £300 seems way over the top.

Your maximum claim value (total all risks) is something which you can specify so you should be able to increase it to what you need for an additional premium. Having said that, some insurance companies may well have a lower overall limit than others.

We're with Direct Line and they've been fine with what I want to cover and with a fairly hefty all risks to include everything we take with us when we're travelling.
 
My value of mobile kit is around £25k, with my Peli holding around £16k in one go.

I did think that £300 additional premium was OTT. I may do some price comparisons online for a new policy and see how they come out. My policy has only just renewed which is a bummer.
 
Mr Pid said:
My value of mobile kit is around £25k, with my Peli holding around £16k in one go.

I did think that £300 additional premium was OTT. I may do some price comparisons online for a new policy and see how they come out. My policy has only just renewed which is a bummer.
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As I said 'Without knowing what exactly you are trying to cover...'.
 
Mr Pid said:
My value of mobile kit is around £25k, with my Peli holding around £16k in one go.

I did think that £300 additional premium was OTT. I may do some price comparisons online for a new policy and see how they come out. My policy has only just renewed which is a bummer.
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If it helps, by way of comparison, I pay just over £800 per year for my home insurance, this includes unlimited building and contents, the contents are insured anywhere in the world to all practical intents (60 consecutive day limit), £15K per item limit unless declared in advance, including accidental damage and accidental loss. Not suitable for businesses, but it gives an idea of options.

How we protect your camera equipment
If you have a Hiscox Home Insurance policy you don’t need to take out separate camera cover. We provide unlimited insurance for camera equipment as standard.
  • Unlimited cover
    If your equipment is lost, stolen or damaged, the total amount we’ll pay out is unlimited, unless you exclude this from your policy.
  • No need to list anything worth under £15,000
    Our camera cover includes all equipment worth less than £15,000 as standard. So if you have a high value collection, you’ll avoid the hassle of listing every lower value item.
  • Worldwide cover
    Your camera equipment and accessories are fully covered when you take them away from home for up-to 60 days at a time.
  • Digital media cover
    We’ll cover you for up-to £5,000 if you need to retrieve lost digital downloads, including video and photographs.
  • Accidental damage cover
    This optional cover can be added to your policy and provides cover home or away for your camera and equipment. Accidental damage was the cause of 1 in 5 claims over the last 3 years.
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Mr Pid said:
Thats an awesome repair - the body looked quite dented at the top.

After many phone calls today my house insurance will cover it, but for an additional £300 on the premium..... specific items of over £3k are covered (with proof of value) but anything else under £3k has a maximum claim value of £5k - so a macbook pro and a 100-400 ii will get paid out but everything else will not be covered, which isn't so good.

Or I got a decent quote with Esure for £270 which I'm looking into further now.
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Yes it was, I thought it would have been an insurance writeoff, but no they paid for the repair. As I said dealing with Eversure not to be confused with any other similar name like Esure were fantastic

Link

https://www.eversure.com/camera/
 
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I dropped my named on the contents house insurance to Infocus recently and had an unfortunate incidence with my MacBook Pro. They settled it very quickly and paid for the £1300 repair promptly, excellent service. Very cost-effective for the premium with full camera cover and peripherals including IT equipment, highly recommended.
 
realspeed said:
I can't say enough about " Eversure "having recently having to contact them when i dropped my camera.
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I'm glad that you have had a good experience with Eversure, makes me feel better about who I went with to insure my gear.
 
Nice comments about Eversure!

My gear is covered under my home insurance via Santander. I have no claims experience - thankfully! However insuring £5K camera, £12K lens, a £5k lens (and some other bits and bobs) All Risks on this planet added next to nothing to the cost.
Total was approx £350 including a 4 bed Semi and contents.
 
Mr Pid said:
After many phone calls today my house insurance will cover it, but for an additional £300 on the premium..... specific items of over £3k are covered (with proof of value) but anything else under £3k has a maximum claim value of £5k - so a macbook pro and a 100-400 ii will get paid out but everything else will not be covered, which isn't so good.
.
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Was this for a stand-alone equipment quoteor as an addition to a home insurance quote you already have?

I'm looking to get all my gear insured now but that does seem a lot - I don't even pay that for my home and buildings insurance
 
We are with Hiscox. My camera bag took a nosedive from a table while we were away. I spoke to them on my return, after sending an email. I explained what had happened, they agreed to me using Lehman's to assess / repair or write off. It seems to be going well. My repairs will be quicker or subject to a loan as I have Canon CPS gold membership. If it doesn't cost a great deal, I may well pay myself as I don't want to bump the premium up. We'll see. I should hear on Monday what they have to say about it all.
 
I've had policies with PhotoShield and Amateur Photographer insurance - both were well priced and easy to deal with however i never had to make a claim.
 
Well, the costings have come back from Lehman's. Ouch! To repair the 16-35 f4 is £235, the 100-400 is £327 and the 5D4 is £470. This includes £25 for the analysis if we don't go ahead with the repairs. So just under£1000 in all. The parts work out at c250. Labour costs on all are the highest part of each. I have been on to the insurance company who advise that my premium might go up between 10-20% (not in the member of staff's view as a heavy loading - makes me wonder what happens if something bad happens to your house). . Given the cost of our premium this works out over the next 20 years (which would take us both to around 80 years old) 2.5x the cost of the repairs. In the conversation with the claims person, I find out that there is an option with these policies to have a protected no claims but have no memory of being asked this. I am sure as a quite risk averse person, I would have taken this option up. They are going to listen to phone calls. So, we shall see. At the moment, I am thinking that insurance is nothing more than a delayed payment option. Ah well.
 
That's very interesting Chipper - It's crossed my mind about protected no claims on household or item insurance, only cars. I need to remember that one at time of my next renewal.

Hope you get things sorted ok
 
Chipper said:
Well, the costings have come back from Lehman's. Ouch! To repair the 16-35 f4 is £235, the 100-400 is £327 and the 5D4 is £470. This includes £25 for the analysis if we don't go ahead with the repairs. So just under£1000 in all. The parts work out at c250. Labour costs on all are the highest part of each. I have been on to the insurance company who advise that my premium might go up between 10-20% (not in the member of staff's view as a heavy loading - makes me wonder what happens if something bad happens to your house). . Given the cost of our premium this works out over the next 20 years (which would take us both to around 80 years old) 2.5x the cost of the repairs. In the conversation with the claims person, I find out that there is an option with these policies to have a protected no claims but have no memory of being asked this. I am sure as a quite risk averse person, I would have taken this option up. They are going to listen to phone calls. So, we shall see. At the moment, I am thinking that insurance is nothing more than a delayed payment option. Ah well.
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That is the reason I do not want to insure my photography gear under my house insurance, the impact any claim may have on future premiums.

As you have already declared it to your insurers, they may increase your premium even if you do not claim,

You cannot win with insurance.

I hope you sort out your issue without paying through the nose.
 
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Well, they couldn't find anything in the phone calls and pointed to an item amongst many pages of the bumpf that said that protection was not selected. At no point did they indicate that this was now an option for us. I have complained and they are going to come back to me tomorrow. Having chosen a company based on reviews and reputation and much higher premiums in the first place to avoid this, then I will persist with my complaint, even if I have to go to the ombudsman. So, we shall see. If they penalise us for not claiming then they certainly won't be renewed next time. Maybe they are all sharks.
 
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